


hand in hand

by thir13enth



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-04-30 23:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: He told her once that he wasn't leaving her. And so, she isn't leaving him.





	hand in hand

**Author's Note:**

> tl;dr - lotor tricks everyone, allura meets shiro in the astral plane, and they save the day.  
> basically all my headcanons mashed together in a horrid mess.

As much as Allura hoped that Lotor would be different, she isn’t the least bit surprised when she wakes up one day and sees nothing but black completely surrounding her.

She blinks a couple times, but her vision doesn’t clear. No stars, no galaxies, no space, just nothing but black. Her head is foggy and she can’t think clearly. All she knows is that Lotor has something to do with this, and that Lotor is the reason she’s here.

Where is she? What was the last thing she remembers doing?

Ah, yes — she’d just been out in Blue, forming Voltron with the other Paladins to better investigate the gravitational anomaly they discovered between two super red stars while they were orbiting larger asteroids along the outskirts of Oriande. Of course, Lotor, master of persuasion, was able to convince them to do it, and since he had acted as their ally more than enough times to prove himself, they hadn’t given his suggestion as much of a second thought.

And they should have. _She_ should have, at the very least.

She should have never let her guard down.

Lotor had been slow and calculating, learning everything there was to learn about Voltron through his friendship and alliance with Allura — all the meantime harboring an ulterior motive to eliminate them once he had the chance. He was the same as his father after all. It didn’t matter if he hated his father and that his father disregarded him; he had been trying to prove himself worthy and along the way became heir to his father’s obsession with power.

That is, once he discovered what his father had known all this time: that the universe they were living in was growing short of power — collapsing. That, just by the laws of physics and natural selection, the universe across the Rift was the dominant — with infinite amounts of energy, slowly swallowing their universe whole. That, if they continued to mine quintessence from the Rift, they could redistribute the energy to their universe and keep it from self-destructing.

In fact, Voltron — made of the comet that opened a rift into the other reality — was proof of that. Voltron was not of this universe, and that’s why Voltron was invincible here. But while Voltron was originally made to stop the creatures coming across the Rift from further destroying their own universe, Voltron later became Altea’s weapon to keep the Galran’s from going into the Rift to extract power from the alternate universe.

Of course, Lotor didn’t mention a word of this to Allura. Allura only found this out for herself while she was in the Oriande, and it wasn’t until then when suddenly she understood how deep the conflict between her father and Zarkon ran and just how dangerous knowledge truly was.

And it wasn’t until then when Lotor knew that Allura now also knew about the truth. And now that Allura knew exactly what was going on, he knew she would continue the exact same war that their fathers had started, and that she would naturally take her father’s side of the conflict.

So no, she is not surprised when she opens up her eyes and sees nothing but black all around her. When she looks down, she sees faint holographic images of what must represent her limbs. She tries to move but she doesn’t have a body, but when she _thinks_ of moving, her phantom legs stride forward. She walks forward on a plane that never ends and never bends.

Where is she?

She asks but she knows the answer right away, as if a voice is speaking from within her.

_You are in a dimension between universes, child. Your mind and consciousness are separated from your body and life. You must find a way to return to your universe before you lose the connection to go back altogether. Your body will not last forever uninhabited by your mind._

What happened?

_Something must have happened to you. No consciousness comes between universes on their own accord._

She closes her eyes and smiles.

That’s all right. I know how to get out of here. I know someone here that will help me.

She can’t sense him there, but she inexplicably and undoubtably knows that he is there.

“I always knew you were still out there somewhere,” she says out loud.

She holds her breath, waiting for his reply.

He answers.

“How did you know?”

She breathes again.

“I didn’t know,” she admits. “I just believed.” Her smile widens. “You told me once you weren’t leaving me,” she says. “And so I’m not leaving you.”

Then she opens her eyes, and before her is Shiro — the same as ever.

He returns a smile, and her heart beats like mad. Her smile stretches further than it ever has since he was gone, so far that it tugs hot tears from her eyes.

“How’d you know where to find me?” he asks her, stepping forward.

“I didn’t know where,” she says, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I just saw you in my dreams.” She steps forward. Cautiously, because he looks exactly as he does in her deepest sleep. “I only knew when I came here. I could feel you here, somehow, like the distance between us became shorter.”

She reaches out to touch him, but before she does this, she stops herself and looks up at him, just in case he’s just a dream and would dissolve the moment she held his hand.

But then _he_ reaches out to her, and _he_ closes the distance, and then suddenly her hand is in his, warm and gentle as she remembered it.

“It really is you,” she murmurs.

“Yes,” he replies softly. Then he brings her into an embrace.

And oh, how she has missed this so much, tucked within his arms — the safest place in her known universe. He has no physical body here, but what is here left of him is more than enough. She closes her eyes and takes in as much of the embrace that she can: the smell of his skin, the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathes, the quiet of being together.

He drops his head and for a moment, she thinks he might kiss her. Her insides flutter and her stomach turns inside out but she quells her hopes. Now is not the time for love.

She breathes in deeply and looks up at him, permitting herself a quick glance at his lips before raising her eyes to meet his. “I should get going,” she tells him, as much as she wants to stay there in his arms forever, as much as she misses him by her side. “Lotor is out there wreaking havoc. Who knows what he’s done so far in the time since he knocked us out.”

Shiro’s lips twist. “He found out about the end of our universe, huh?”

“I think he’s always known. He was just waiting to see what I would make of it.”

He nods. “Hm,” he replies, in deep thought.

Allura watches him, his dark brown eyes steady and unfocused, looking at the ground as he ponders. This is why she loves him, she thinks to herself. He is reflective and contemplative, and he is conscientious and empathetic.

His eyes return to hers. “Be careful, Allura.” His arms tighten around her.

“I will,” she promises. She waits a few seconds more before she reminds him. “I should get going now.”

“Of course,” he replies, but he doesn’t move, lingering for as long as he can.

“You know what to do?”

He nods.

“Okay then,” she says, more to herself than to him. She struggles to leave his embrace, peeling her self-will out of his arms. She doesn’t want to leave here without him. She wants to take him with her; she wants all of this to be over already.

“When are you coming back?” she asks him.

He gives her a small smile. “When I can, I suppose.”

She returns the smile. “I wish I could take you back with me.”

“I wish I could go back with you,” he replies. He tilts his head down. “But my body is occupied right now.”

“He’s nothing like you,” she scoffs.

He scrunches his nose. “I actually think he’s doing a pretty good job.”

“I knew the moment he set foot on the ship that he wasn’t you,” she says. She looks up at him, an idea sparking in her head. “How about I just force him out of you when I go back? Then you can come back, right?”

“I have to stay here for just a little while longer. You’ll need me again. From here.”

She frowns as faint scenes from the future coalesce in her mind. Here between universes, there is no such thing as time, and even after just concentrating for a few ticks, she encounters many glimpses into her universe’s future.

“Yes,” she says, defeated. She nods. “I know.” She takes one last glance at him, tracing the details of his face over and over in her mind. The wrinkles around his dark eyes, the sharp edge of his jaw, the stray white bang over his forehead, the thin gleam of his scar crossing over his nose.

“Are you ready?” he asks her.

Allura takes a breath, sinking this — his voice, his warmth, his smile — into her memory. “Yes,” she tells him, closing her eyes. “Send me back.”

“Alright,” he answers, and he steps forward to take her hands.

The next time she opens her eyes, she’s back in her universe, completely surrounded by the dark of space just beyond Blue’s windshield, the power completely out. There’s only radio silence over the intercom. No one else has regained consciousness yet.

“Damn, Lotor,” she curses softly to herself.

She holds out her hands, letting a white light of quintessence form between her palms. Slowly, it grows, so bright she can’t see out the window through its reflection. The energy grows warm in her hands as it expands, and she smiles, reminded of his hands over hers.

“Thank you,” she says. “I’ll see you soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> and yeah i guess the title references The Hand Touch™ because what fucking shallura fan isn't obsessed with that moment
> 
> you know where to find me:  
> tumblr @ahumanintraining  
> twitter @napsbeforesleep


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